Desert Dilemma
by MissFaerieKaiti
Summary: The desert is a dangerous place. It's hot, dry, bright, and filled with deadly creatures. Few people the desert has designated as a target make it out alive. Newest target: Team Haru. Attack strategy: Heat exhaustion and hypothermia. Think I'm kidding? Let's find out. OC-centric
1. Main Story

**Whoo-hoo, finally another story! I feel kinda bad that no one canon shows up except once in memory (in this chapter, anyways), but I got the idea months ago and only yesterday got the inspiration to actually write it out, which cured my irritation at the fact I've published NOTHING in FOREVAR. And this is the result. =3 When it comes to the medical stuffz, I tried to do my research, but I'm not sure if I actually did it correctly when I wrote about it. :/ Maybe, if you see any mistakes, you can just assume that ninjas are more awesome than normal people and so have slightly different reactions to that type of thing? xD Or you could point out my mistakes and I could try to correct it. ^^**

**Anyways! Hope you enjoy! (Btw - This takes place probably around the beginning of the time skip.)**

**Tsunade: *writing ferociously* Kaiti in no way, shape, or form owns Naruto. She is merely using the Naruto world for her story's setting, the Naruto characters for a more Naruto feel, and the Naruto world's jutsu for her characters because as ninja they _must_ have some kind of super-human talent. Kaiti also claims no ownership to original characters Haru and Kyra, and only half ownership to original character Hotori. And it goes without saying that Kaiti does not own the desert, heat exhaustion, sunburns, or hypothermia. *signs disclaimer Lady Tsunade, Legendary Sanin and Fifth Hokage of the Leaf Village* Whew, finally! =3=**

* * *

Kaida started feeling sick on the morning of their second day of travel, but she tried not to show it. Instead, she just drank more water.

She glanced over at her sensei and teammates. Haru-sensei and Hotori looked normal – or, as normal as one can be when traveling in 125-degree weather. Kyra, on the other hand, had ducked her head to hide her face behind her hair, probably inwardly wishing for shade as much as Kaida was. Kaida had decided to braid her own waist-length hair for this mission, so unfortunately she didn't have even that much shade.

Team Haru had been assigned to a mission which would take place in the desert. Lady Tsunade had decided that she would leave the details of the mission for when they reached their destination: a small village about four days' worth of traveling away from Konoha.

All in all, Kaida really should have been able to predict that she and Kyra would suffer like this. After all, Kyra's chakra nature was water and Kaida's was ice, neither of which was easily found in the desert (especially the ice).

Kaida wasn't sure exactly how the desert was affecting her teammate, but as for herself... Well, she had always been more sensitive to heat than normal people, probably making up for the fact that she could hold a dagger of ice in her bare hand or tromp barefoot through snow if she had a mind to. She was almost certain she was going to have a severe sunburn before this was all over.

If only she knew.

* * *

The sun continued to climb in the sky. Lunchtime proved even more blisteringly hot, even though they had taken refuge in the shade of a large boulder. They had taken food pills the day they'd started traveling, so that they could travel in the cooler night as well as day; but Haru-sensei had insisted they would be better off all-around if they ate something too. Kaida drank more of her water, wishing for some respite from the heat. She was absolutely _baking _under this sun, even in the shade. The heavy silence around her was an indication that everyone else was, if not quite as hot as her, then definitely suffering in the climate so much different from what they were used to.

Kaida saw Kyra drink the last drops from a water bottle, but didn't realize until Hotori passed her some of his own water that Kyra had drank the last of all of the water she'd had with her.

"Is everyone ready to move out again?" Haru-sensei asked quietly when everyone seemed to have finished eating.

It seemed too much of an effort to speak, and Kaida half feared that if she opened her mouth, any water that she hadn't sweated out would immediately evaporate. She merely nodded. And Kyra, resting her head on Hotori's shoulder with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, nodded as well.

Hotori scowled. "Why couldn't these people have hired Suna ninjas to do this? And why on earth did Lady Tsunade send _this_ team, of all people? She's got to be an idiot not to realize that sending water- and ice-chakra-users—"

"Hotori, this is the Hokage you're talking about," Haru said firmly. "Show some respect. There must be a reason behind it."

"Maybe the squad she wanted to send is somewhere else," Kaida mumbled, grabbing another drink of water as she stood with the rest of her team. For a moment, Kyra looked as if she was about to fall back down (Kaida felt much the same way), but at the last moment, her brother Haru caught her and balanced her.

Another few hours passed, then something happened that Kaida wasn't exactly sure how to explain. She had had about as much of the heat as she could take and was wishing for respite more than ever when _it_ happened. Something inside her, in her chest, near her heart, split open. And through that opening, something cold washed into her. For the first time since they'd come into view of the desert, Kaida was blissfully cold.

A welcome chill traveled down her spine and spread into her limbs. She decided the situation was basically the opposite of when one has hot chocolate or soup on a cold winter day.

Suddenly Haru-sensei's voice cut sharply in: "Kaida! What's wrong?"

Kaida didn't know she'd been smiling dreamily until the expression dropped away at her sensei's tone. "Nothing. Why?"

He eyed her in concern. "You don't look right."

"Gee, thanks."

"You know what I mean."

"I think it has something to do with my chakra; I'm not hot anymore." Well, her skin still felt hot to the touch under the sun, but her insides felt like a refrigerator – in a good way.

Haru-sensei still looked concerned, but he accepted her explanation, instead directing his worry to his sister, who still had her head down constantly unless she was drinking something. "Kyra, how are you holding up?"

If Kyra's hair weren't in the way, Kaida probably would've seen her bite her lip. Like any shinobi, Kyra hated letting on that she was hurting, even if it was obvious without words.

"Fine," Kyra whispered dryly.

"Take another drink of water," Haru-sensei suggested, and she did so.

Then Haru looked over at Hotori to finish his checkup of his entire squad. "Hotori?"

Hotori snorted. "Hot. Who isn't?"

Haru-sensei sighed and pulled out a map. "Looks like we should reach an oasis sometime tomorrow," he said, sounding as though he were mostly talking to himself.

Good, they'd be able to get more water there, at the very least. And there would even be trees that could provide shade and shelter for a while before they moved on to the village another day's hike away!

Kaida shivered slightly as she marched on with her team.

* * *

Some time later, night fell, and still they continued onwards.

Kaida found herself shivering more often. The sand relinquished all the heat it had gathered while the sun was up, making the temperature drop quickly. Not only that, but the place in her chest that was letting the cold into her body didn't close up or stop. In an attempt to warm herself somewhat, Kaida undid her braid with shaking fingers so that it fell down her back.

It helped, sort of.

"Everyone doing okay?" Haru would ask every hour or two.

The general response was yes. Kyra especially improved as less water consumption was needed now that they were no longer sweating off everything they drank.

Only Kaida didn't exactly get better. She had gone from one extreme to the other, and she found herself wishing that the sun would rise again.

Then again, that was selfish thinking. The moonlight and low temperature was good for the rest of her squad. Besides, she had never truly been cold before, so she was probably just being a wimp.

Sometime after midnight, Kaida found that she could not stop shaking. Good thing it was too dark for anyone to notice, and if she tried hard enough she could still say one-worded sentences without chattering.

Maybe there was something she could do about the cold still rushing into her system. After all, it was her chakra, right? She had mastered both forms of chakra control months ago, so surely she could push it from her bloodstream back into her chakra network, right?

As she continued walking with her squad, Kaida shifted her concentration inward. Yes, it was definitely her chakra making her cold. Almost like a jutsu that worked on the inside, she decided. And yet, she hadn't consciously cast it, and (even worse) she had no idea how to reverse it. The only thing she found she could do was make the cold leak even more quickly, which made her gasp aloud as she went from fridge to freezer mode for a moment.

Instantly Haru-sensei's hand was on her shoulder. "Kaida, what is it?"

Embarrassed, Kaida just shook her head. "I just tr-tripped, sorry."

Haru looked angry in the moonlight, surprising Kaida into tripping for real. Only his hand on her shoulder kept her upright. "We should head back."

"What?"

"You're shivering, even though you're never cold. And we're in the _desert_."

Kaida shrugged his hand off and tried to grin. "In the dead of n-night, it's alw-ways cold. I'll be f-fine when the sun c-comes up."

"This whole mission was assigned to the wrong team," Haru said wearily.

"Finally someone agrees," Hotori muttered.

"When the sun comes up, we'll just suffer even more." He didn't say names, but Kaida could tell he was thinking about her and Kyra more so than himself and Hotori.

Apparently Kyra caught the same impression. "We'll be fine, Nii-san! It'll just take a bit of tweaking in our travel plans, is all. If we hurry tonight, we'll get to the oasis a couple hours early, rest there for a while, and travel quickly the next night to get to the village on time. The sun won't be as big a problem then."

Kaida nodded her agreement. "And as long as I'm more active at night, I'll warm up quickly," she said, hoping she was right.

Haru-sensei was silent for a while, probably pitting brotherly-and-sensei-like instincts against the fact that it would look really bad if they failed the mission without even seeing the client. "Alright, let's go. But you _will_ tell me if you notice any signs of heat exhaustion, got it?"

Kaida didn't think that would be much of a problem with her, still shivering, but she agreed with her other two teammates as they said "Yes, sir!" and took off at a faster pace.

* * *

Kaida didn't warm up with exercise, and she didn't warm up when the sun rose. She hated the fact that she kept shivering, even as she felt her skin heat up under the sun's rays. She decided that immunity to the cold was one of the absolute best perks anyone could get.

And, though it nearly killed her admitting it even to herself, she was scared – scared that she'd never be warm again.

She tried to amuse herself by imagining what everyone's reaction would be when they found out she had died from hypothermia in the desert.

"We're almost there," Kyra said in relief. The oasis was now in view.

"Trees," Kaida breathed, eyes shining.

"Water," Kyra agreed.

"Shade," Hotori said, his tone for once not obnoxious – instead filled with almost as much relief as his female teammates'.

Haru didn't say anything, but his expression spoke for him. He was longing for the oasis not for himself but for his students. Kaida supposed that, as a jonin, he could deal with the desert's weather better than they.

After what felt like an eternity, Team Haru reached the oasis. Kyra immediately jumped into the water, no doubt drinking as she resurfaced in a shallow part. Haru, Kaida, and Hotori refilled their water bottles and drank as well. The water was relatively cool, as it was mostly shaded by the trees around it; but at that particular moment, Kaida would have preferred warmer water in the hopes of it warming her inside.

Finally, they all reclined on the shore against trees. Well, the three students did. Haru-sensei rested for a moment or two, then began checking on the rest of them. Hotori apparently passed inspection as being as well as possible after a couple days of desert travel. The two girls, however, were another matter entirely.

"Imouto, I thought I told you to let me know if you started noticing signs of heat exhaustion!" Haru said, frowning at her as he felt her forehead.

"We were almost to the oasis before I noticed anything," Kyra protested weakly. Her face glistened with more sweat than usual, even in the shade. "What could you have done?"

"Your skin is cool and clammy. What do you feel that I can't see?"

Kyra hesitated.

"Kyra," Haru said warningly.

Kyra looked at the ground. "My head hurts, my arms are cramping, and I feel sort of weak."

Haru sighed, but apparently decided she was going through enough and that getting upset (even if his anger wasn't directed at her) would only add to their list of problems.

As if Kaida wasn't about to do that already, now that Haru-sensei was moving towards her.

He put his hand to her forehead and obviously wasn't happy with what he felt and saw. "You're burning up and still shivering," he said sternly.

"Talk to my ch-chakra, not m-me," Kaida said.

"Any other symptoms?" he asked.

Kaida shook her head. Maybe her chakra would eventually wear itself out and stop trying to freeze her. Then again, if her chakra ran itself out completely, she wasn't sure that was such a good thing. Hadn't people who drained their chakra wound up...?

No, she wasn't going to think that way.

Haru's face looked like a thunderstorm as he stood, but he kept his tone level as he said, "That's it. We're resting here for a while, then Hotori and I are carrying you girls back to the Leaf Village."

Both girls tried to protest, but Haru-sensei wouldn't hear it. Even Hotori agreed that the sooner they got back, the better.

All in all, Hotori's agreement with Haru-sensei was what shut the girls up, even though it was for different reasons. Kyra, because fighting against two loved ones was more than she could take. Kaida, because if Hotori, who went out of his way to give people a hard time, agreed that someone needed medical attention, it was more serious than she realized.

So they spent the day at the oasis, waiting for night to fall. While Kyra spent her time panting, Kaida spent her time shivering. The boys did what they could to make both of them as comfortable as possible.

Then, just before dusk, something happened. Kaida was half-asleep when it happened, and she couldn't struggle awake in time to realize what was going on. It was only later, when darkness had come completely and there was no sign of Hotori or Haru, that Kaida realized they had been attacked.

Shivering in the cold of night, Kaida crawled over to the place she thought she had heard the noises coming from. Try though she might, she could make out nothing except sand and trees and water. So she crawled back to Kyra, who was quietly begging for water.

Somehow, even though she was shivering so badly that she dropped more water than she kept, Kaida got Kyra a drink. Then both girls passed out and slept through to the morning.

* * *

When the sun rose again, Kaida found her hair incredibly hot, even though she was still shaking with cold. Sleepily, Kyra agreed to braid it for her since Kaida's own fingers were hardly cooperating with the simplest of tasks.

It wasn't until Kyra mentioned the absence of the boys that Kaida remembered what she thought she had heard the previous night.

"Stay here, I'll g-go look for th-them," Kaida said.

"But," Kyra started to protest.

"I may b-be cold, but it's y-you that's s-sick. Stay." Okay, so Kaida's condition was probably classified as sick as well, but she did not want to risk her best friend getting even worse if she moved from the shade with nearby water. And maybe if Kaida kept moving, she could convince her chakra system that she was now cold rather than hot.

So Kaida stumbled and shivered her way back to the place she'd visited the night before. Blood stained some of the green things (grass blades, bushes, a couple trees) poking out of the sand, and Kaida saw two unmoving bodies. Her throat constricted until she proved to herself that neither of them were Haru or Hotori. Kaida glowered at the sand, as if it was the sand's fault that her teammate and sensei were nowhere to be found.

In a way, Kaida supposed it was. Sand was so loose and shifty; it gave no indication as to where the Leaf ninjas had gone, or been taken to. It was unlikely (that being an understatement) that they would have left of their own free will. But it was also unlikely, Kaida convinced herself, that whoever had been with the two bodies now lifeless on the ground would have hauled away the dead bodies of enemies.

So they were alive, but captive. Good news and bad.

Mostly bad, because if they didn't come back soon, odds didn't look good for Kyra's survival. And although Kaida wasn't sure if her own condition was fatal or not, she would really rather not find out.

Kaida returned to Kyra and relayed what she'd found and what she suspected, trying to emphasize the good points, but having no choice but to also give some of the bad.

Kyra nodded, her face etched with pain – more emotional than physical, Kaida knew.

The girls spent the day mostly in silence. Neither one had the energy or will to speak more than absolutely necessary, and they focused solely on surviving and taking care of each other.

Kaida eventually found that she'd been wrong about moving around – she felt warmer than she had in days when she held still and tried not to move. Her chakra didn't push itself into her bloodstream so quickly.

Near dusk, Kaida took another food pill to keep herself awake and not needing food. Kyra didn't need that kind of energy booster; it would probably just make her worse, since rest was so essential to keeping her heat exhaustion from turning into a heat stroke. (Not that Kaida was an expert, having skipped class at the Academy a lot of the time.)

So Kaida stayed up that night, supplying her friend with what she needed and keeping watch to ensure she could act quickly should anyone show up and threaten them.

In between trips to get water for herself and Kyra, Kaida decided to keep track of how long Haru-sensei and Hotori had been gone. As of now, it had probably been just over twenty-four hours. Kaida pulled out one of Kyra's kunai (Kaida didn't generally carry kunai anymore, not since she had begun easily making them herself out of ice; but it didn't seem such a good idea to try using her jutsu while her chakra was still leaking) and made a mark in the tree beside her.

If they didn't come back, and soon, maybe Kaida and Kyra would just have to risk getting back to Konoha on their own. It had taken them about two days to get through the desert to this point, and roughly a day's travel from Konoha to the desert. If they moved quickly enough, they could maybe almost make it out of the desert in a single night's travel.

But that was only a last resort. Kaida did _not_ like their survival odds if there was a choice between going back to the Leaf Village or starving to death, especially if their two conditions didn't improve.

* * *

The next day and night passed the same way. Nothing much was said; all attention was devoted to survival.

Kaida cut a second notch into the tree and hunched into herself in hopes of getting the chakra flow into the rest of her body to stop. She was starting to get weaker from the constant cold (and sometimes cold _and_ hot, during the day) and surviving on little other than food pills and water.

The next night, a while after Kaida had cut a third notch and gone to the water to refill their bottles, Kyra shrieked. Kaida staggered quickly to her feet, bumped her head so hard against a low tree branch that it broke off, and went to Kyra as quickly as she could.

A scorpion! It was crawling over Kyra's shoe onto her leg, moving towards Kyra's face. Even in the dark, Kaida could see Kyra looked terrified, not daring to move.

Not even stopping to think, Kaida backhanded the scorpion off of Kyra's leg and fumbled around for the kunai she'd set on the ground only half an hour before. She found it and lunged towards the scorpion, not wanting to give it the slightest opportunity to sting either of the girls.

Although Kaida gripped the blade like a novice, she managed to stab the scorpion multiple times and somehow avoid getting stung. As her heartbeat raced so that for once she was starting to warm up in spite of her chakra still leaking, Kaida turned towards Kyra.

"It didn't sting you, did it?" she asked hoarsely.

The brief silence before Kyra answered felt like an eternity. "No." A pause. "Thanks."

"Hey, what are friends for if not to kill things?"

Kaida thought she heard Kyra chuckle lightly, but she wasn't sure.

The night wore on, and as the adrenaline rush faded, the chakra rush returned with a vengeance. Kaida was grateful for the silence that hung between her and Kyra, for she wasn't sure if she could talk if she tried, her teeth chattered so badly.

* * *

The next day was the worst yet. Kaida curled up in the shade and refused to move unless Kyra needed something. She hadn't gotten much sleep, what with taking the food pills so she could keep watch at night. And she was definitely sunburned, which made her hot and gave her sharp pains if she moved. And mixed with all of that, she was still cold.

_Worse than being cold or hot,_ Kaida thought grimly and she lay there, _is being cold AND hot. This stupid mission is a failure in all points._

Worst of all, her hair had come out of its braid and was making Kaida even hotter by hanging down her back. She was still shivering too violently to braid it herself, and Kyra was too weak to sit up long enough and concentrate long enough to do it for her.

All the same, Kaida reached back and attempted to split her hair in three equal parts. Epic fail.

Whatever, so long as she could get them in _some_ kind of three groups to braid.

Epic fail in that area too. Her fingers just would not work.

In a fit of complete frustration and even desperation, Kaida grabbed Kyra's kunai, pulled all her hair into her fist, and slashed through it. The sudden release of weight on her head and heat at her back made her dizzy for a moment, then relieved.

She would probably regret this later, when she had time to think about it, but at least it would always grow back.

Meanwhile, she just had to focus on keeping herself and Kyra alive.

"Kaida?" Kyra said after taking one of her frequent sips of water.

"Mmm?" It hurt to get even that much out.

"They're not—" Kyra nearly choked on the words, but she swallowed and got them out: "They're not coming back, are they?"

Much as she didn't want to, Kaida sat up and made herself speak. "Yes, they are," Kaida said slowly, with as much fierce confidence as she could muster. "N-Nothing could k-kill Hotori – b-believe me, I've t-tried."

Kyra laughed weakly.

"And Haru-s-sensei knows th-that if he d-d-doesn't come b-back, you'd k-kill him y-yourself," Kaida continued, hating that it was so much of an effort to speak.

Again a weak laugh came from Kyra.

"And th-they both have t-too m-much at s-stake to l-let anything h-hurt them," Kaida finished. "They _w-will_ come b-back. G-Got it?"

Kyra sighed, hopefully in contentment, but Kaida was couldn't hear well enough over her own chattering teeth to tell for sure.

"Yes. They will return."

Once that was settled, Kaida huddled back into herself against the tree, only to come face to face with a snake. Unable to stop herself, she made a very undignified squeaking sound.

She didn't dare move, just like Kyra when the scorpion had crawled onto her. She didn't dare make any sound after that first involuntary squeak.

The snake tensed, but just before it lunged, a shuriken sprouted from its neck just below its head, pinning it to the tree's trunk and effectively killing it.

Kaida gasped for breath, not realizing until then that she'd been holding it. "Thanks, Kyra."

"No problem," Kyra said, her voice scratchy. She took another drink of water. "Now we're even."

Kaida laughed shakily, pleased to note that her chills had once again been chased away by the fright.

Unfortunately, this one didn't last as long as it had with the scorpion. She began shivering again within minutes.

Several hours later, Kaida marked the tree for the fourth time and braced herself for another long, cold night.

* * *

The sun had nearly completely risen when Kaida thought she detected movement in the distance, through the trees. She squinted and found that she was right. People, the hot desert air making it difficult to tell how many, were making their way to the oasis.

Kyra was lying in a position that would make it impossible for the newcomers to see her until they were practically on top of her, and Kaida shifted so that she had a similar advantage. She made sure, however, that she could still see them if she leaned slightly to the side.

Was it friend or foe?

If Kyra noticed Kaida's sudden attention on the horizon, she didn't comment on it. Which was good, because Kaida had no intention of telling her until absolutely necessary. She didn't want to raise false hopes or fears.

The figures drew nearer. Sometimes it looked like two people, sometimes three. And sometimes Kaida thought she was seeing double and there was only one. More than once Kaida wondered if she was just staring at a mirage. Nonetheless, she kept watching.

Gradually, Kaida recognized them: two male ninja, one shorter than the other because of age differences. Haru-sensei and Hotori!

"Kyra," Kaida said. Or at least, that was what she meant to say, but only air came out. Kaida swallowed, cleared her throat, and tried again: "Kyra!"

"Hm?"

"They're c-coming."

Kyra jumped up and screamed, her expression one of pure joy and relief. She would have run to them, but Kaida tugged her back down and reminded her that it would not be good for her to run out into the blazing sun and get sick again, especially since she had not yet recovered from the first time.

So the girls sat impatiently waiting. Not that they needed to wait too long, for the boys had broken into a run the instant they heard Kyra scream. The four were together in moments. The two boys were both sunburned as badly as Kaida, but that didn't stop Haru-sensei from wrapping Kyra up in a big bear hug.

Though Kaida and Kyra were dying for answers, and Haru and Hotori wanted to know how the girls had fared, the boys were dead tired from whatever they'd gone through and then running all night and walking some of the morning. So they slept, and, at Kaida's insistence, Kyra also rested some more.

As for Kaida, she got another drink from the oasis water, leaned her head back against her tree with four notches, and stared up at the bright sky, trying to ignore the snores and the cold chakra still leaking into her system.

At sunset, everyone woke up and Haru announced that they were leaving the desert that night even if the girls had to be carried. He swept Kyra up into his arms immediately after making sure they all had as much water as they could carry. Kaida noticed Hotori's expression that said he would have liked to be the one to carry Kyra, but brothers apparently had more say than boyfriends, especially when the brother in question was also the sensei.

So Hotori knelt with his back to Kaida, silently offering her a piggyback ride. Much as she didn't get along with Hotori and wished to save what little dignity she had left, Kaida placed her hands on his shoulders, gripped his waist with her legs, and let him carry her.

Haru set a fast pace, but not so fast that the wind ripped away any words spoken. So he and Hotori explained what they had gone through during those four days.

Or at least, that's what Kaida supposed they talked about. She stayed awake for the first word or two, then leaned forward to rest her chin on Hotori's shoulder, and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

**Yay, the end, they all lived happily ever after! ...Almost. I'm sure you still have unanswered questions, yes?**

**Kaida: Who cares, as long as I can SLEEP? x3**

**Me: *sly grin* Oh, I think you'll care. *glances to off-stage, where some-random-canon-character-who's-that-lazy-genius-we-all-know-and-love is standing***

**ANYWAYS. =D I'd appreciate a review before you click to read the next chapter. And Taylor-chan, let me know how I did characterization-wise with your characters! ^_^**


	2. Epilogue

**Alrighty then, here we go with explanations! Hope you enjoy~ ^_^**

* * *

One sunny afternoon, Shikamaru entered the Yamanaka clan's flower shop, looking for someone to talk to. Or rather, looking for someone to talk to him. Ino didn't require a second person's opinion as she talked. He'd only have to put up with the gossip that made its way into the conversation.

"Shikamaru Nara!" Ino said in irritation the instant he walked in.

Uh-oh, what'd he do this time to deserve getting his last name added in? With Ino, it could be anything from not seeing her when they were in the same store to doing something like assassinating the Hokage.

"It's about time you got here! Now, would you like to look over our tulip selection, or the roses?"

Shikamaru gave his teammate a quizzical look. Not having visited in twenty-four hours was hardly a reason for her reaction. Then again, saying he hadn't come to buy anything might be a pretty good reason in Ino's book to get her even more worked up, along with whatever she was talking about now. He settled for a slightly safer response: "Excuse me?"

Ino gestured impatiently for him to join her by the flowers. "Tulips are generally the most welcome in hospitals, but roses are acceptable too, especially if you explain to them you're dating. But we've got plenty of other flowers here to choose from if you don't want those two. You should just know that lilies—"

"Ino!" Shikamaru finally interrupted her. "What on earth are you talking about?"

Ino gaped at him. "You mean you haven't heard?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Kaida's in the hospital! And up until about noon, she'd been unconscious ever since yesterday afternoon when they brought her back from a mission into the desert! Kyra's in pretty bad shape too; in fact, it was a tough mission for the whole team."

Shikamaru didn't even wait for Ino to finish before he all but ran from the shop.

"Hey, what about the flowers?" Ino called out after him.

"Later," he promised over his shoulder. Right now he had to find Kaida.

Kaida hated hospitals with a passion; the fact that she had stayed there after she regained consciousness told Shikamaru a lot.

He stopped by the receptionist's desk just long enough to get directions to Kaida's room, and then he was off again, checking his pace only when doctors glared at him for 'running in the hallways,' a rule he hadn't heard since Academy days.

He found Kaida's room, and he found Kaida herself sitting up in the bed fingering her hair. He was surprised to realize it had been cropped short, no red strands falling past her chin. Her face was pale in the places that it wasn't sunburned, and her lips looked as though they had just recently been blue. And instead of the purple colors she always chose to wear, she was dressed merely in white, the standard outfit for every hospital patient.

She jerked her head up and hands down at his abrupt entrance, then smiled when she realized who it was. "Hey," she said in a voice so hoarse he nearly cringed in sympathy.

"Hey," he said. He noticed a pitcher of water next to a cup of ice on the table in her room and poured her a glass.

She accepted it with a smirk. "I sound that bad?"

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"You didn't have to." She sipped at the water cautiously, almost as if she was afraid, but Shikamaru couldn't imagine why.

"I hear you had a tough mission," he said quietly, taking a seat in the chair next to her bed.

She made a face. "The mission went fine, judging from all the bragging Hotori's been doing. Kyra and I fell apart before we'd even been briefed on what to do."

Shikamaru thought he understood. "Ino said your mission was in the desert. With your ice chakra nature and Kyra's water chakra nature..."

Kaida nodded.

So that was it. Shikamaru had known her chakra nature kept her comfortable even when dealing with anything extremely cold. And yet... "Wouldn't your ice nature be able to prevent you from getting too hot? I know no ordinary fire can melt your ice unless you allow it."

Kaida cringed. "About that." She took another careful sip of water. "I probably would've gotten heat exhaustion like Kyra, but my chakra nature _did_ intervene. The bad part? It didn't stop."

Shikamaru squeezed her hand, the gesture as much to comfort her as to reassure himself she was okay. Her reaction to the ice water he'd given her made sense now.

Kaida smiled wryly. "I wondered for a while what your reaction would be when you found out I died of hypothermia in the desert."

Shikamaru couldn't help the small grin in return. "I'd say only you could come up with such a creative death. Even though you survived, Ino nearly gave me a heart attack when she told me you were actually _in_ the hospital while _conscious_. You're behaving!"

Kaida made a face at him. "Just for that, you're going to help me out of this stupid bed into a chair. I don't care if the nurses pitch a fit; beds are the most germ-infested piece of furniture in a house. And I'm sure that applies to hospitals, too."

Shikamaru grinned at her again as he moved to help her. It was a small request; he noticed she still wasn't trying to get out of the hospital entirely. "You're not afraid to get covered in dirt, train in the great outdoors where nothing is ever really clean; and yet you protest the supposedly one clean place where you can heal. Am I missing something?"

She laced her fingers behind his neck as he picked her up bridal-style, one hand behind her back, another under her knees. And she didn't let go when he placed her in the chair he'd been sitting in. Her eyes laughed at him, and he gave in easily to what he knew she wanted. He sat back down in the chair and settled her in his lap.

Her words gave no hint to their silent conversation as she answered the question he'd voiced aloud: "Yes, but that's okay. I still don't understand why you don't like books, and I love you anyways," she said, grinning.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes good-naturedly. Kaida's parents owned and ran a small bookstore, so Kaida liked grabbing a book when she could (though Shikamaru could never figure out when she had the time, between training and missions and hanging out with her friends). Shikamaru read occasionally because his dad made him. He didn't necessarily dislike books, but he rarely found any he liked. He'd explained it all already, twice even, before realizing she understood but said she didn't just to get him monologuing.

"I'm going to smoothly change the subject, and you're going to pretend the transition makes sense," he said teasingly.

She laughed by way of agreement.

"What happened with the mission?"

She shifted to get more comfortable in his lap. "Kyra and I stayed in an oasis the whole time, so I only know what Haru-sensei and Hotori told us. The first evening we were at the oasis, Hotori and Haru-sensei were attacked. Kyra and I were elsewhere, out of sight. After fighting for a while, Sensei and Hotori were captured and taken to a nearby village. Turns out, it was the same place they were supposed to go to meet up with our client. Not the same building, but anyways, you get the gist."

Shikamaru nodded.

"So they escaped, somewhat – didn't explain how – and found a huge breeding... _nest_, I guess you would call it, for all sorts of desert creatures. Tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, et cetera. They finished their escape, literally ran into some old guy who happened to be their client, went home with him, and got briefed."

Kaida reached behind her to grab her cup of water and take another drink before continuing. Her voice was still scratchy and Shikamaru thought about telling her the story could wait, but Kaida would just wave him off and continue anyways.

"They'd been having more difficulties with desert animals than usual lately. People would find a scorpion in their socks, a snake on their bed, a huge spider in the cabinets, to name a few Hotori repeated in gruesome detail. Yeah, they have those problems on occasion; it's a hazard of desert life. But this was out of control. So they reached the obvious conclusion that someone was breeding, training, and releasing these animals into the village."

Kaida drained the last drops of water from her cup and replaced it on the nightstand behind her.

"Somehow, Haru-sensei figured out there was a natural toxic gas chamber underneath the village, and he came up with a plan to kill off the animals by releasing the gas into the building that was breeding them. It was Hotori's job to evacuate the people beforehand."

"Which he did very well, I might add." The voice came from Kaida's doorway, where Hotori was leaning casually against the frame. He too had a sunburn, but otherwise he looked no worse for the wear.

"So you said last time," Kaida replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Visiting Kyra."

"No, I mean _here_, as in the room that _isn't_ your girlfriend's?"

Hotori raised an eyebrow with an innocent expression on his face. "I'm not allowed to check in on a teammate?"

"Why did the people working at the breeding building attack you?" Shikamaru asked before a fight could follow. He knew Hotori and Kaida tried to be civilized to each other in Kyra's presence, but he also knew they still barely tolerated each other.

Hotori shrugged. "Search me; they didn't offer an explanation. 'Oh, by the way, just because we're trying to maim you for life doesn't mean we're all bad. We'll prove it by telling you our master plan, how's that sound?'" he said in a mocking tone.

"Never mind." Shikamaru turned his attention back to Kaida, who didn't relax until Hotori left. "So I gather all went well, and they left to find you again?"

Kaida nodded. "More or less. That's all they told Kyra and me that happened, anyways."

"And you and Kyra at that time were...?"

"Living it up on a tropical vacation with a spa and everything."

"Funny."

"Thanks, I thought so."

"Seriously."

"Kyra was under strict orders to do nothing but rest and drink lots of water. I don't think Haru-sensei knew quite what to do when it came to my condition. I was hot and cold the whole time, except at night, when I was just plain freezing."

Shikamaru drew her closer and rubbed her back, as though trying to redo the past by making her warm now. "How did you finally get cured?"

"Sakura treated me as best she could, but what really got me back to normal was Hinata. She came in, hit a few chakra points, let Sakura work her magic, and put me back to normal again." Kaida's eyes flashed with sudden determination. "Shikamaru, I'm going to learn how to control that chakra that leaked into me. That opening is still there, I can feel it. I'm going to control it, and next time I set foot in a desert, I'm going to feel like I'm out for a stroll along the beach."

Shikamaru found himself thinking how nice it would be if she never set foot in a desert again, but she was a shinobi, just like he was. They took risks, and they learned from past experiences.

"Let me know if I can help," he said, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"You're sure it won't be a drag?" she asked, grinning.

"You're worth it."

"Good. Now, first thing you can do is get me out of this awful hospital. All these white walls can do nothing to hide all the diseases and stuff."

* * *

**So? Didja like, love, hate, meh? Let me know! *pokes review thingy below* Please and thank you? x33**


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